Justice Division rebuffs Republican demand for audio of Biden interview

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Division on Monday rebuffed calls for by Republicans within the Home of Representatives at hand over audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interviews with a particular counsel whose report questioning Biden’s reminiscence set off a political firestorm.

Particular Counsel Robert Hur angered Home Republicans by deciding to not pursue felony prices in opposition to Democrat Biden for retaining labeled data relationship again to his time serving as vp underneath Barack Obama. The division had charged Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump for holding labeled paperwork after he left the White Home.

Assistant Lawyer Normal Carlos Uriarte stated the division had already supplied the entire data sought in a congressional subpoena, together with sure transcribed interviews from Hur’s investigation.

“The committees have responded with escalation and threats of felony contempt,” he wrote in a letter to Home Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Home Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer. “We urge the committees to keep away from battle slightly than search it.”

Home Republicans have threatened to carry Lawyer Normal Merrick Garland in contempt if the division doesn’t hand over the entire data they’re searching for.

Hur introduced in February that he was declining to cost Biden for knowingly taking labeled paperwork after leaving the vice presidency in 2017, sparking a political firestorm by noting in a report that the president had cooperated with the probe and that his “poor reminiscence” as an aged man would make him troublesome to convict.

Spokesmen for each Jordan and Comer couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.

Within the division’s letter, Uriarte argued that lawmakers have already acquired “a unprecedented quantity of knowledge” associated to the Hur probe.

This not solely included Hur’s report and his testimony, however copies of sure labeled data, transcripts of the interviews with Biden and a duplicate of the transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden’s memoir ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, he stated.